We study practice variation in scheduling of cesarean section delivery across public and private
hospitals in Italy. Adopting a novel perspective, we look at the role played by patients’ preferences
for the treatment. The recursive probit model is revisited as a useful tool to assess the presence of
assortative mating of patients and provider driven by style of practice. According to our evidence the
propensity to scheduling a cesarean section is codetermined with patient self-sorting into hospital
types. We measure a significantly higher inclination to practice cesarean section scheduling in
private hospitals and conclude that assortative mating is of minor relevance in our case, even if we
cannot exclude it to be presen
